- Joined
- Jul 12, 2015
Stone knives being sharper than copper ones isn't too surprising. No wonder copper smelting didn't catch on - when you're in a wooded area, you want tools that can easily clear brush.
Tabletop Roleplaying Games (D&D, Pathfinder, CoC, ETC.)
- Thread starter Surtur
- Start date
-
Want to keep track of this thread?
Accounts can bookmark posts, watch threads for updates, and jump back to where you stopped reading.
Create account
- Joined
- Apr 25, 2020
Oh, right. I had read that article before. It's funny, because in very rough terms it says that the North American hunter-gatherers of old were at first either too lazy or too shortsighted to see the benefits of large-scale use of copper tools, and then later were too vain to use copper as anything other than a shiny metal for their upper classes. And I don't think sharpness was the end-all-be-all defining element in this case, because Europe was covered in forests back then as well, they also needed to clear brush, and they pushed on with copper just fine.
It's kind of a "for want of a nail" situation. A combination of geographical issues and decisions made way in the past held back their technological advancement for centuries. Because sure, some mesoamerican civilizations had metalworking technology on par with the Ancient Romans when the Spaniards showed up... but that still put them technologically at least 1000 years behind 1700s Europe.
- Joined
- Jul 12, 2015
Durability is important, but when you're experiencing a population boom, you need more things in general. Copper smelting didn't take off possibly because of the methods they'd developed to smelt it weren't as efficient for whatever reason (maybe bad kiln design), or just there wasn't an incentive to spend the time gathering the material. Evidence points to the way they handled the metal being cold worked, with some basic annealing which results in a much more brittle end product. Combine that with the fact that this is some of the purest native copper on the planet, and you start to see where problems come in - Copper doesn't retain an edge that well, and without the impurities that would result in the discovery and creation of alloys, you're dealing with a very ductile, flexible metal, that when you hammer into shape will get pretty brittle, and even annealing won't fully solve those issues. No wonder it didn't catch on in a large scale. Without smelting, you don't get alloy production.
- Joined
- Jun 7, 2018
It's not going to matter, because nobody's going to play it. Oh, the $200k worth of backers, they'll get their copies and gush over it and maybe force it on some unsuspecting people at conventions and then claim it was a huge hit at GenCon 2022 or whatever, but they're not going to actually sit down and play the fucking thing for a long haul. It simply won't happen.
I don't know why people don't get this through their heads, there is no long campaign like a D&D campaign. Yes, there's the rare event where someone plays a Traveller game that lasts a few years, or a Star Wars game that emulates the movies. But do you know why you hear about those? They're exceptions. It's like finding a phone booth on Bouvet Island. It's not that there's a bunch of people who want to sail all the way there to use it, it's just so weird and out of place that it is worth mentioning.
No, people will buy this heap redskin spirit talking leaf and play it 1 to 4 sessions, gush about how amazing it is, and then go right back to 5e D&D, the end.
Also the premise is too cute by half. "Hey guize! What if...no white people!" So...yeah.
- Joined
- Apr 9, 2019
Plenty of people play long games in other systems D&D. The problem is most games break up due to out of game problems like schedules long before you get to the point where it is a "long campaign." D&D being the worlds most popular roleplaying game more games get to the long point because the number of games being played is higher.
- Joined
- Dec 16, 2019
The latter two, mostly. Even as a proudly former California, kicking it to the curb because the Lieutenant Governor pulled a soft coup while the Gov was on vacation and unilaterally started pulling shit is excessive and a major case of the UCAS cutting off its nose to spite its face, given the strategic necessities of all those military bases. Same deal with not taking the South into account for the formation of the UCAS. Given that the South is a much more important thing to have on your side than a broken Canada, not forcing the Leafs to take an L to keep the US together is one of the stupidest decisions ever. In terms of manpower, economic output, and strategic resources what's left of Canada after the Treaty of Denver is worth fuck-all compared to Texas or Florida.
- Joined
- Feb 20, 2017
I would have to say lazy. I don't want to sound racist, but the First Nations people here tend to just give up on things too easily. Copper would have led into bronze and later iron, but you have to stick to one area to make the most out of smithing such things, and learn to mine, you can't rely on surface deposits. Native Americans also didn't have a lot of major cities. I can only think of one on the East Coast that was gone long before even Vikings settled. The people in South America were far better off.
Zemporer
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Dec 17, 2019
Does anyone know of any pre-made adventures (age or system isn't important) that have the PCs going into the Underworld of Greek Mythology to rescue someone? I'm looking for something to give me some descriptions, encounters, etc. I'll be adapting for 5e.
I'll re-watch Mario Bava's "Hercules in the Haunted World" for some inspiration.
I'll re-watch Mario Bava's "Hercules in the Haunted World" for some inspiration.
- Joined
- Jul 12, 2015
No, they're pretty determined. Cahokia was built on and occupied for centuries until floods, disease, and possibly conquest forced people to abandon the site. Put simply though, the Little Ice Age combined with the absolutely devastating effects of European diseases destroyed pretty much all of the major population centers of North America. They built cities, pretty decently sized ones too, it's just those cities weren't able to survive.
- Joined
- Nov 26, 2018
A friend recommended this video to me as I'm watching it I'm curious as to how others feel.
BScCollateral
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- May 28, 2018
Probably, The thing is that the first guys to get the idea to conquer the planet and the overwhelming military technology (on this world, the Europeans) to do it are the ones who ROFLstomp the rest of the civilizations, whether they're fifty years behind or fifty thousand. I don't find it that hard to imagine an alternate history where the Triple Alliance somehow pulls it off instead.
- Joined
- Apr 25, 2020
That's a pretty clickbaity title and thumbnail, but to be honest the video itself is... okay? Unbalanced adventures and weak introductory adventures are nothing new, really. I remember that shit back in AD&D, some of these intro modules were just fucking brutal.
The guy does provide good advice on running adventures, though. I'd recommend the video to a new GM trying to learn the ropes.
- Joined
- Nov 26, 2018
Yeah I thought the video as very informative as I've never ran an introductory adventure and was curious as to what others thought of them, both in general and about that particular one. From my very limited experiences there was a lot I agreed with based on what I've figured out, and some things I hadn't thought of before.
- Joined
- Jan 18, 2017
I liked it. Good tips and the guy can edit and pace a video decently. The avernus stuff sounds pretty fun but he's spot on with regard to how ball-crushing the splatbooks are for Level 1-3 characters. I'm astounded at how much shit they throw at low level parties. Maybe they expect everyone has a team of 6 PCs in spite of what they write? All I know from personal experience is that encounters typically go from death-traps to cake-walks pretty quickly in these games as player capability rapidly outstrips the questionable CR of encounters.
- Joined
- Jan 7, 2020
This one is making the rounds in one of the communities I'm in. I meant to post it yesterday but Kickstarter was not agreeing with my VPN. Anyway, strap in. This will be a long one.
Coyote & Crow the Role Playing Game
A science fiction and fantasy tabletop RPG set in a near-future where the Americas were never colonized, created by a team of Natives.www.kickstarter.com
View attachment 1968016
View attachment 1968019
Man, that's a lot of "WE'RE NATIVES, TRUST US!" all over the page.
View attachment 1968023
View attachment 1968028
Well, this could be interesting. I wonder how it's going to--
View attachment 1968030
It's just Storyteller. It's literally just fucking Native American Storyteller.
View attachment 1968033
There we go, if you're a non-native, you're strongly advised to fuck off an not use some options in the book, even though you're supposed to all be roleplaying native characters.
Do these people understand the concept of "roleplaying"? Also, there are no non-native characters in the setting, since it was "not colonized". So what do you do if you're a non-native playing that game? Just... suck it up and not play some things? That sounds like so much fun, having my options in a game limited by my ancestry!
View attachment 1968036
A diverse team! Including the absolutely-traditional-not-created-in-the-late-80s native tranny term, the "two spirit". Their ancestors would be so proud!
View attachment 1968048
This is at the end. Separate but equal, indeed.
These guys are funded over 10 times over. I fully expect the product to come out, but I also fully expect drama. There are great odds of he-said-she-said drama about a non-native team member claiming to be native. What do you guys think?
I like how the "Totally legit native weapons!" are just knives. They didn't bother to change how their culture conducts warfare at all and just made fancy knives. I'm guessing they also never bothered to make armor (that is European!) and just have upgraded tattoos and warpaint for personal protection lol.
I will say once again that some of the art is actually pretty good. Not sure what it is with SJW games and getting decent artists but terrible writers. They seem to have a bunch of different artists with some variation in quality that comes with that, but some of that makes for cool effects.
No wait what the hell they are actually just using magical tattoos and warpaint as their armor arn't they? And still just magical sci-fi bows? If a white guy made this he'd be hung for stereotyping. Is there going to be Eskimos that fight off the other tribes with sci-fi seal beating clubs?
The gift and burden system sounds retarded. "We arn't going to tell you if your recurring nightmares are a good thing or not!" from the sleeping pill thing next to the weapons. Its a pretty blatant ripoff of whitewolf's system otherwise (which is honestly a step of from AW games IMO), it should be at least playable like the Trump-is-a-Goblin RPG. The overall setting doesn't sound too dumb but all the details we get are really really dumb.
- Joined
- Oct 10, 2014
I have my character concept for this game already.This one is making the rounds in one of the communities I'm in. I meant to post it yesterday but Kickstarter was not agreeing with my VPN. Anyway, strap in. This will be a long one.
Coyote & Crow the Role Playing Game
A science fiction and fantasy tabletop RPG set in a near-future where the Americas were never colonized, created by a team of Natives.
View attachment 1968016
View attachment 1968019
Man, that's a lot of "WE'RE NATIVES, TRUST US!" all over the page.
View attachment 1968023
View attachment 1968028
Well, this could be interesting. I wonder how it's going to--
View attachment 1968030
It's just Storyteller. It's literally just fucking Native American Storyteller.
View attachment 1968033
There we go, if you're a non-native, you're strongly advised to fuck off an not use some options in the book, even though you're supposed to all be roleplaying native characters.
Do these people understand the concept of "roleplaying"? Also, there are no non-native characters in the setting, since it was "not colonized". So what do you do if you're a non-native playing that game? Just... suck it up and not play some things? That sounds like so much fun, having my options in a game limited by my ancestry!
View attachment 1968036
A diverse team! Including the absolutely-traditional-not-created-in-the-late-80s native tranny term, the "two spirit". Their ancestors would be so proud!
View attachment 1968048
This is at the end. Separate but equal, indeed.
These guys are funded over 10 times over. I fully expect the product to come out, but I also fully expect drama. There are great odds of he-said-she-said drama about a non-native team member claiming to be native. What do you guys think?
Big Chief Firewater. His power is that he has stolen the secret of the white man's drink and uses it to gain great courage and insight. Whenever the party must deal with a difficult encounter Big Chief Firewater uses his sacred drink gain his powers. Max Charisma and Spirit, very low endurance because he's susceptible to smallpox. He has a big heart and is very generous. He will sell large portions of land for clay pots and more magic drink.
I'm 1/124th Cherokee so I'm glad there's finally a roleplaying game for me.
Edit: I commissioned a life like art piece featuring Big Chief Firewater battling one of the deadly monsters from the game.
Last edited:
- Joined
- Aug 23, 2018
I really have to twist people's arms to get them to play a game that isn't 5e, and even then it's usually another fantasy game like PathFinder.
One thing I've noticed the last couple of weeks is a demand to play games simply because that's what a popular YouTuber is playing.
I didn't want to give him the clicks, but I've seen that guys videos. Well edited, but the content is not so great. That's the channel I said made "Tomb of Horrors" into "Tomb of minor inconveniences". I don't remember if that was the YouTuber who also made Tatanya in Ravenloft an mary sue that kills Strahd at the end.
I've not watched the video you linked, but if it's anything like his other videos, he takes a legitimate problem with an adventure and then proceeds to gut the entire thing of any kind of challenge or uniqueness, missing the point of the setting or adventure in the process.
- Joined
- Apr 15, 2014
Shitpost from one of the players in my D&D game.
>TFW as a DM you inadvertently allow your players get their hands on enough nerve gas to wipe out Los Angeles.
>TFW as a DM you inadvertently allow your players get their hands on enough nerve gas to wipe out Los Angeles.
- Joined
- Apr 25, 2020
It's really funny how they try so hard to avoid being insultingly stereotypical, and still somehow manage to land on "insultingly stereotypical" anyway.
It's also funny how they seem to have a whole civilization that looks entirely European, just with a faux-Native trim on it, because that's what the writers, being American mutts, know. For example, I'll bet you they'll have cars, and those cars will still drive on the right.
- Joined
- Jan 7, 2020
Nah. They'll clearly doing the wakanda thing where they have super science and they use it to make traditional spears for some reason. This is clearly a setting where everything is traditional injun but updated with tech. You can see someone with a bow and arrow on the cover. There doesn't seem to be any roads, everyone is in traditional clothing, and if you look at the skill sheet there is "piloting" but no "driving". They still won't have invented the wheel (because that is European like guns and armor), they'll just go around the sky in flying canoes or something.